As the nights grow longer and colder you’ll probably find yourself less enthused with the idea of exerting yourself through exercise. With summer’s pressure to have the perfect “beach body” well behind you and the desire to wrap up with some warming, carb-heavy comfort food ever-increasing, it’s not too difficult to see why many of us fail to keep fit as the year draws to a close.
If you’re feeling guilty about how your less than stellar approach to staying fit this winter, online doctor Chemist Direct quizzed a wide range of health and fitness professionals on their top tips for motivating yourself to stay healthy during the chilliest time of year.
“The cold winter weather incites this deep desire to sit on the couch, snuggled in a blanket with a steaming cup of hot cocoa, watching reruns of CSI Miami or Criminal Minds”, says Dr. Michael Perry, a man who clearly understands the mental roadblocks that keep us from staying active in winter.
“However”, he continues, emphasising the more serious nature of the topic, “staying active during the winter helps boost your immune system and works to stave off the winter blues, commonly referred to as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)”. Depression in winter is a common occurrence, brought on through vitamin D deficiency (due to decreased exposure to sunlight) and lower endorphin levels. Staying fit, it seems, is both a concern for body and mind.
So how do we overcome these physical and emotional hurdles without contracting hypothermia?
Dr Perry suggests moving your workout into the home; creating an activity centre which holds all your exercise DVDs and weights, making it easier to find all the tools necessary for your workout and removing one more excuse from the list.
If you’re not in possession of suitable space to create such an environment, Dr Perry also suggests a form of exercise you’ve probably heard about recently: “If you’re looking for something a little more creative, try a hot yoga, also called Bikram yoga, session. These workouts are typically conducted in a room set at about 105 degrees”.
Dr. Artemio Del Real (or Arty, as he prefers to be called), a primary care physician specializing in musculoskeletal conditions and sports medicine, similarly considers desire to remain indoors and limited exercise possibilities as the greatest contributing factors to winter weight gain. He therefore stresses the importance of making a schedule that forces you to be more active:
“Set time aside during daylight hours to get physical activity. This allows you to take advantage of sunlight and promotes a healthy circadian [24 hour] rhythm. Sunlight naturally makes you feel uplifted because of the hormonal changes and auto regulation that is influenced by sunlight.
Busy schedules during this time are more common, therefore reduce workout times from the norm to a shorter time, but increase frequency, (i.e. usually work out 3-4 times a week for 45-60 mins. Switch it up to working out 5-6 times a week for 20-30 minutes). The type of physical activity will have to be carefully measured and performed to be able to sustain this type of program. This means, don’t work out to failure, leave some in the tank everyday so you will want and be able to work out the next day”.
South Philadelphian personal trainer Joe Pepe also recommends short, sharp bursts of exercise as the best means of halting the malaise that the busy winter season can cause:
“When you wake up add 20 push ups, 30 sit ups, 20 jumping jacks. It won’t be much but add that in everyday and you will be adding in to your calorie burn”.
Even if you can muster the energy and discipline to get active this winter there’s still the onslaught of calorie-laden holidays to think about: Thanksgiving, Hannukah, Kwanzaa. Christmas, New Year, whatever your religious and cultural leanings may be, it’s likely you’ll be indulging yourself over the next few months. So how do you ensure that the rest of your winter diet remains healthy?
Both Kac Young, PHD, (author of the Heart Easy Cookbook) and health and fitness expert Tora Cullip agree that making your own soup is a happy compromise between our desire for comfort foods and remaining healthy.
Kac suggests that you “pass up the beef and pork stews, the creamy or cheesy chowders and elect [for] lighter, healthier soups with plenty of vegetables, beans, garlic, leeks and spinach. Make your own with fat-free, low sodium broth and use ground turkey or chicken breast instead of red meats.”
Tora focuses on the “need to honor your desire to eat warmer, more comforting foods” but with a healthy twist. Vegetable soups packed with dark leafy greens, garlic, ginger and lemon are both easy to make and provide an assortment of vitamins that the more carb-heavy foods you’ll be craving do not.
Joe Pepe’s advice for the winter diet focuses more so on portion control:
Thanksgiving, Christmas,New Years, Valentines Day are four holidays known for food, alcohol, and sweets, [so] the biggest diet strategy is to focus on portion control. Focus on having half your plate [covered in] veggies or fruits, the more colorful the better. Also, carbs should be no bigger than your fist, that is one serving. The rest of your plate [should] get some protein, it will keep you fuller for longer.
Whilst a great deal of this information may seem like common sense, you’ll no doubt find that reason goes out the window and your desire to lay about gorging yourself quickly takes over at this time of year. One final piece of advice that you should always consider when attempting the above advice comes from health expert Danette May:
“Give yourself a reward for healthy behavior. Human nature is driven by rewards. Think of something you want and reward yourself with it, if you exercise 4-5 times/week, for 3 weeks. After 3 weeks, think of a new reward for the next 3 weeks.”
Even if your reward is a big plate of mac n’ cheese or a mega bacon butty, creating realistic goals and a tight routine should mean you’ll still ring in the new year without the guilt of a holiday paunch.
